Ludlowe names Darien assistant Ross new football coach

Barely a month since Vin Camera announced his resignation, the Fairfield Ludlowe athletic director on Wednesday announced via an e-mail to parents that Darien assistant Dr. Mitchell J. Ross has accepted the job.

“I’m very excited,” Parness said in a phone interview. “We obviously had a good pool of applicants and from that pool we brought in a number of people for interviews. ... Doctor Ross was one of the ones that came in and we’re excited about his wealth of experience at Darien, helping to lead a program that’s one of the best in our state. ... I’m excited to have him come to Ludlowe.”

Ross had been a member of the Blue Wave football staff since 2003 and for the past seven seasons had been the team’s passing coordinator. For the last 15 years, Ross was also a coach in the Darien Junior Football League.

According to Parness, one of the key factors in Ross getting the Falcons’ job was his intent to try and make football “a great experience” for the players.

“Obviously, he’s got the offensive experience and the record at Darien speaks for itself,” Parness said. “but he also wanted to have everyone get involved in the overall experience, including education. It’s his goal to get these kids into great schools. He also talked about the safety aspects and all those things together made him a great fit for Ludlowe.”

Camera was 12-29 in his four seasons as the Falcons’ head coach, including finishing 0-10 this season. It was a season that was marked by the refusal of several players to attend practice after a loss to Greenwich on Oc. 28.

Ludlowe has had three straight losing seasons and just one winning campaign in the last seven.

Darien went 13-0 this season en route to the Class LL championship, defeating Ridgefield 28-7. The Blue Wave have appeared in the Class LL finals the past two seasons and were also in the Class L championship game in both 2014 and 2013.

“It’s always tough to lose quality coaches because quality coaches are hard to find, and it happened with (McMahon coach) AJ Albano and now Mitch,” Darien coach Ron Trifone said. “As always I was them luck in their career and I’m sure he’ll do well. We’ll have to replace him, and it’s not about us, it’s about him and we wish him all the best luck going forward.”